+ Edinburgh Players Opera Group

‘Founded in 2000 by Mike Thorne and Philip Taylor. They together believed it would be possible for an enthusiastic group of professional, semi-professional and talented amateur musicians including a cast of adventurous professional singers to come together over the course of a single weekend in Edinburgh to rehearse and “perform” the operas of Richard Wagner (that is, conclude the weekend with a final play through without stopping to rehearse). These are significant works, which even the professional opera houses see as daunting undertakings. They started with the first of the Ring Cycle of operas, Das Rheingold, in 2001 and have since completed two complete Cycles plus performances of Tristan, Meistersinger and Parsifal (interspersed between the cycles for light relief).  In 2014 the group branched out into Strauss (Der Rosenkavalier) to replenish the batteries. EPOG meets annually in the last weekend in September.’